The Seeker | Volume 2

Even if it has only been a few minutes after Aizawa had kissed Olive, he couldn't help but feel a deep pang of regret upon doing it quickly. Suddenly, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. It didn't correlate to his current emotions, but rather he felt like it was the Order 9 Demon potion finally digesting.

As if it had happened to her too, Olive suddenly looked towards Aizawa before looking down at her stomach.

"Did we meet some strange requirement?" She asked, curious while also dumbfounded by the current situation of potion digestion. Aizawa's expression remained uncertain as he looked at Olive.

"This Routeway could be primarily described as one of lust and enhanced sensuality. While physical attributes also come into play, perhaps that action made us digest our potions." Aizawa replied.

"I wonder what we'll have to do in the future to advance. If kissing at Order 9 allows us to digest our potions a lot quicker, perhaps more sexual attributes would chime in during the mid to high Orders of the Demon Routeway." Olive said with some bewilderment. 

Aizawa suddenly felt his heart drop.

"I have a feeling I did everything too quickly."

Olive's brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Aizawa suddenly took a deep breath as he looked towards the sea.

"It's quite personal, really. I've always had feelings for you, and I could sense that you had feelings for me, even if they were enhanced by my newfound abilities. I'm starting to think the Routeway makes me purposely feel things, things that aren't genuine."

He suddenly recalled what happened when he returned to his apartment the night he met her, the strange sexual pleasure and overwhelming stimulation he felt. It made him shiver.

"You probably got the Order 9 potion from the Ebon Veil Syndicate, but I have no idea how I drank mine. After I had my drink at the bar I felt weird…was it somehow integrated within the potion, who would do such a thing?..."

His mind began to race. He suddenly felt the symptoms of what he had previously felt when the Mother of Envy tried to make him lose control. The strange warts on his body! He looked down at his hands, only to see that they were completely normal. Is his mind toying with him?

…was it "her" that gave him the potion indirectly?

…

I transformed back into my male form and took a few steps back from the desk while grasping the letter in my right hand. I had purposely used the Isabella alias in the letter, but would that be a smart choice?

If they could pinpoint the address it was sent from, any sort of deduction agency wouldn't find Isabella within the house, therefore leading to strange complications. I had titled the Silver Snake Committee as the SSC in the letter, and upon research from a few brief minutes in a map of the island I found that this was a location that shared a similar abbreviation: Sullies Snack Counter.

"Why would anyone not be suspicious of someone asking for potion ingredients and information about a family from the previous epoch in a letter dedicated to a restaurant?" I lampooned to myself.

I initially shrugged off the possibility of such a thing. It would most likely be considered rude to read the contents of a letter without explicit permission, so I decided to use my intuition to just send the letter to the Pan Marché de Bolivar complex. 

I left the house at about 8 in the morning; on the way picking up a pastry for only one half of a Lumin. Heh, they quite literally cut the coin in half as a form of currency, so I guess the other half is useless unless I want to buy another pastry later.

The streets of Dreknoght Bay were pretty ordinary, just like Seraphis Kingdom. But when I entered the market while following the route to the post office I had to cover my nose. The market, since it was a coastal village that primarily focused on seafood, reeked of uncooked fish and their intestines as they were chopped up and sold in bags to customers. 

Due to its location out at sea, the possibility of the government implementing a carriage system for convenience was low. Even if it bordered the Katshin Empire it was merely a tool used by them for imports and further transport. Since Dreknoght Bay was about a mile or two from the Katshin Empire, the crew of many ships were already tired from their long voyages, so the Katshin government turned the island into an "important island" situated nearby.

When I arrived at the post office and submitted the letter, the man working there put it into a large pile of unopened letters before pulling out a pipe while reading the newspaper. 

Following that he told me to leave since he didn't need any more of my service. On my way back I brought another pastry from the market for the last of my half Lumin and ate it on the way back to Paxton's establishment. When I approached his house I suddenly felt something brush against my leg.

I looked down and saw a furry brown cat brushing against me, looking up at me with curiosity. It was the same cat that Paxton had encountered last night! I carefully knelt down and stretched my hand out, allowing the feline to gently sniff it. Soon enough it was bruising against it, purring loudly.

Upon closer inspection of the cat I saw that it had no owner or indication that it had a home to live in. would Paxton really mind me taking the cat into his house? Following that thought I carefully picked up the cat, the small animal curling up in my arms and purring with content. 

I took a careful step into the house, and saw that Johnson had awoken. He wore a simple black robe with pajamas underneath. When he saw the cat in my arms he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Why do you have that?" he asked in a neutral voice. 

"I found it in the street, I didn't want it to starve so I decided to take it in with me." I replied.

Upon hearing that, Johnson sighed softly. "Well, I don't know if my dad would like that very much." he grumbled.

Behind his usually careless eyes I could spot some sense of longing and affection for the cat. Johnson suddenly stood up and took a few steps towards me before placing his warm hand onto the cat, slowly stroking its brown, dirty fur.

"It's soft," he said softly. 

I nodded in agreement, watching the cat brush against his hand, its purring getting louder. My eyes softened as I watched the cat love the attention. It suddenly reminded me of the cat I had taken care of back in America, the stray cat that I fed food and water whenever I could. 

It was painful having to leave the cat, but knowing the possibility that maybe someone found it and adopted it was enough to make the corner of my lips twitch upwards a little.

…

After the sun had set, Carter and Cattleya entered the room that they had received on the ship. The blonde haired man closed the door and turned towards Cattleya.

"I know you're worried, Cattleya." he said softly.

Cattleya, who was wearing a silk nightgown, sighed softly as she ran her hands across the soft linen sheets and blanket of the ships bedroom.

"I'm worried about him. Not just where he is, how he's doing or what he's going to do. I'm also worried about where he is…mentally."

Carter raised an eyebrow. "Mentally?"

Cattleya nodded. "I'm not sure I told you this, but Isaac is destined for something much greater and a lot more dangerous than I could ever anticipate."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked as he took off his shirt.

"How can someone cope like that? Isaac seems like a passionate and kind person. He's awfully selfless. It's almost sad how oblivious he feels to sadness."

"I don't think he's oblivious to such a thing." Carter stated as he sat beside Cattleya. 

"I know Aaron's dead, and I would often see him and Aaron getting along well before that. Just because someone is smiling doesn't mean they're alright. There's a lot that someone can blanket behind such a thing, Cattleya."

"Grace always smiled, even as she died. I could tell she was terrified…but her damn smile was what kept me going."

"Grace?" Cattleya was taken aback by the sudden name drop.

"My sister…" Carter replied solemnly. 

"Grace was my sister; she was always ill though. My mother had a dangerous disease and she seemed to have passed it down to Grace. But even with such a deadly and depressing thing on her little shoulders she always kept on that infectious smile, a smile that was like the sunlight."

After saying that, Carter suddenly huffed. His voice gradually lowered as he spoke.

"Now, here I am. I always need to smile, not to cover up the trouble, but to show the world that…you can persevere through anything. And I know that Isaac would be doing that right now, Cattleya."

A faint smile tore at the corner of his lips. Cattleya looked back at Carter, a small smile forming on her face too. She suddenly leaned in and pressed her lips on his cheek.